Board Bars Filling To Keep Cows From Dying In Marshes

May 26, 1985|By Adam Yeomans of The Sentinel Staff

Cattle ranchers, like most folks who earn a livelihood from the land, are fiercely independent people who do not take kindly to someone, especially a government official, telling them what to do with their land.

Take Starl Warfield. He raises cows on about 560 acres near Okahumpka. During the past six months, 12 of Warfield's cows have died in the marshy areas on his ranch while looking for water.

Warfield dug deeper several ditches on his property and used the muck to start filling in some low-lying areas that threatened his cattle. St. Johns River Water Management District officials ordered Warfield to stop dredging until he received a permit to work in wetland areas on his ranch.

Warfield, who met several times with water management officials, has said he feels the government has no right to dictate what he can do with his land. District officials say they are following state law and trying to protect fragile wetlands wherever they may be.

Bad blood exists between district officials and ranchers who depend on their land for a living. Increasing numbers of land use regulations passed by the state Legislature have made life miserable for many ranchers, said Don Bronson, president of the Florida Cattlemen's Association.

''It's going to put a lot of people out of business,'' said Bronson, a rancher who owns several thousand acres in Polk and south Lake counties. With 50 the average age of a ranchers in Florida, Bronson said he worries about the future of cattle in Florida.

Most ranchers made more money 20 years ago than they do today, he said. The market value of beef has not kept pace with increasing production costs, he said. And tougher land use laws allow ranchers to do little with their land without government permission, Bronson said.

Water management officials say they try to work with ranchers who want to alter sensitive wetlands on their property. But many times ranchers do not want to hear about the limits state laws place on their land, officials say.

The district has stepped up efforts during the past several years to catch ranchers who violate wetlands laws. Plane fly-overs and on-site inspections are used by district officials.

Bronson says ranchers are harassed by state officials more interested in telling them what they cannot do instead of offering assistance in getting permits. Water management officials say they are enforcing the law, whether it applies to ranchers, developers or government bodies.

For a developer, getting a permit can delay the start of work on a subdivision or shopping mall. A rancher like Starl Warfield gets to watch his cows die.